KWINANA OIL REFINERY — CLOSURE
869. Mrs L.M. HARVEY to the Premier:
I have a supplementary question. BP Kwinana has been close to
closure twice over the years of its existence, and it has been twice saved by
Premiers from both sides of politics. Is there more that the Premier could be
doing to keep this important facility open for fuel security and employment
purposes in Western Australia?
Mr M. McGOWAN
replied:
The advice I have is that the refinery loses somewhere
between $100 million and $200 million a year. There is a requirement for a $270
million upgrade to equipment at the refinery. That would mean that, on an
annual basis, the state government would need to subsidise the refinery with
somewhere between $100 million and $200 million a year, and pump at least $200
million into an upgrade at the refinery. That is not something I would think
many state governments would be prepared to do because of the extraordinary
cost and BP is a multinational that can meet these costs itself should it
choose to do so.
We are not happy. I do not think BP, in some ways, has
conducted itself particularly well in its dealings with the state over recent
years. This situation has been exacerbated, as I outlined, by COVID. Basically,
most of the airlines have stopped flying over the last year. A lot of the
profit generated by the BP refinery has been in aviation fuels, which it pumps
to the airport. Obviously, it has had a massive decline in that trade over the
course of the last year. That has had a significant impact on its profitability
and made its losses significantly worse than they were before. I think that has
brought forward what has occurred. It is very sad. Last weekend, I was in a cafe
in my electorate and I met a refinery worker
who was losing his position. I talked to him about the training opportunities
that we are making available. He was happy with the redundancy
arrangements being put in place. It is not satisfactory, but the good thing is
that we are working with the workforce to protect it as best we can and we are
also guaranteeing fuel supplies into Western Australia for industries and
consumers across the state.